BHUBANESWAR: Ending all speculation, Damayanti Majhi, the youngest corporator of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation, was elected as deputy mayor of the civic body on Thursday.
A resident of Jagatpur-Balisahi slum in Cuttack, she had won the corporator post from Ward 49 on a BJD ticket in the recently concluded urban elections. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Majhi said serving people is her motto and the reason behind entering politics.
“I would thank Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and MLA Souvic Biswal besides other senior leaders of BJD who reposed their faith in me for this important post,” said Majhi who was elected unopposed.
The 21-year-old Majhi is a final year MCom student of Ravenshaw University. Although a greenhorn when it comes to politics and administration, Majhi said she will balance her responsibilities as the deputy mayor and education well.
“I am a newcomer to politics but I have been balancing my career and livelihood well,” says Majhi who has been raising her siblings along with her mother, a daily wager, ever since her father died a few years back.
After getting elected as a corporator, Majhi has been working on her plan of action for Cuttack. “There is a lot to do in the city. To begin with, I want to improve the living conditions of people in my slum. There are many other slums in Cuttack where people like me are struggling day in and out to get basic amenities like drinking water and electricity,” she said. Drainage figures high on her agenda.
Earlier in the day, Majhi won the post after the Opposition BJP and Congress walked out of the elections to the post of deputy mayor protesting the manner in which the polls were being held. On the day, BJD leader Subash Singh also took oath as Mayor of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation.